Update Guide for Dell PERC9 H730 Controller December 15, 2017

Transcription

1 Update Guide for Dell PERC9 H730 Controller December 15,

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1.Introduction 1.2.Upgrade Considerations 2. Required Software and Updates 2.1.Required Software and Updates 2.2.Optional 3. Modifying VSAN Advanced Settings 3.1.Modifying VSAN Advanced Settings 3.2.Manually Setting the Options Per ESXi Host 3.3.Orchestrating Applying VSAN Advanced Settings 4. Staging Controller Firmware 4.1.Staging Controller Firmware Using Dell idrac 4.2.Updating Firmware Using a idrac 5. Download and Stage 5.1.Download and Stage LSI-MR3 Device Drivers 5.2.vSphere Update Manager 6. vsan Cluster Remediation 6.1.Maintenance Mode in a vsan Environment 6.2.Maintenance Mode Options 6.3.vSAN Cluster Remediation 7. Driver and Firmware Verification 7.1.PERC H730 Firmware 7.2.ESXi LSI-MR3 Driver Version Verification 8. Summary 8.1.Summary 9. Appendix A 9.1.Appendix A: Directly Upgrading to VSAN Image Upload 9.3.Create Host Upgrade Baseline 9.4.Attach a Host Upgrade Baseline 9.5.Remediate 9.6.Monitoring 10. Appendix B 10.1.Appendix B: Updating vsan 2

3 1. Introduction The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of suggested operational procedures & the available resources that maybe used to update Storage Controller Firmware and Drivers in a VSAN. 3

4 1.1 Introduction The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of suggested operational procedures and the available resources that maybe used to update Storage controller firmware and drivers in a vsan Environment. Since April 31st 2016, as per VMware VSAN HCL there are required driver and firmware updates to ensure Dell H730 Controller drivers are at the minimum supported levels for vsan 6.0, 6.1 and now vsan 6.2. This document will discuss various approaches on operational guidance to remediating existing VSAN Enabled Clusters to the latest supported versions of Dell systems deployed with controllers based on the LSI 3108 chipset. As per the VMware VSAN HCL and the VMware KB the most current up to date recipe at this time of writing for all versions of VSAN 6.x is Controller firmware to version ESXi controller driver lsi-mr OEM VSAN LSOM advanced settings as per VMware KB To ensure a successful update to drivers and settings, we will discuss various approaches in this document depending on the deployment scenario: Updating Device firmware for the PERC9 H730 device drivers When best to modify VSAN Advanced Settings. Maintenance Mode options. Updating an existing VSAN 6.x environment with correct drivers. Since the H730 recipe applies to vsan 6.0, vsan 6.1 and vsan 6.2, the scenario requires updating firmware and H730 device drivers. Directly Upgrading to VSAN 6.2 from a prior version of VSAN. This scenario is valid if you want to update directly to VSAN 6.2, for example with a DELL customized ESXi image. 1.2 Upgrade Considerations How we will approach deploying the updates will be as follows. 1. How to Modify VSAN advanced settings. 2. How to Download and stage controller Firmware to Dell systems, using Dell idrac / Dell Open Manage Essentials. 3. How to Download and stage lsi-mr3 device drivers on ESXi hosts using command line, esxcli or VMware vsphere Update Manager. 4. How to Orchestrate of install and applying of new firmware and drivers. This coordination is for both the firmware and driver updates on each VSAN Nodes to avoid multiple reboots and scheduling maintenance windows while ensuring accessibly to VSAN objects and risk to production is minimized. The outline would be similar to below process. 4

5 5

6 2. Required Software and Updates This section gives an idea of the required software and updates. 6

7 2.1 Required Software and Updates The required software updates that we need are as follows: VMware vsphere 6.x (depending if performing an Update or vsphere Upgrade) vmware_vsphere/6_0 Dell Firmware PERC H730/H730P/H830 Mini/Adapter /FD33xS/FD33xD RAID Controllers firmware version ESXi Driver lsi-mr OEM VMware ESXi 6.0 lsi-mr OEM SAS Driver for DELL PERC9 Based SAS Adapters 2.2 Optional Dell Open Manage Essentials Dell Customized ESXi 6.0 U2 (contains ESXi Driver lsi-mr OEM) Dell Version: Version 6.0U2, A01 Build# Dell Customized Image of VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 2 vsphere PowerCli 6.3 Release 1 Dell PERCCLI Utility supporting VMWare for all PERC9 Controllers 7

8 3. Modifying VSAN Advanced Settings Advanced settings at the LSOM layer that needs to be modified on each ESXi node that is part of a vsan cluster. 8

9 3.1 Modifying VSAN Advanced Settings There are two advanced settings at the LSOM layer that needs to be modified on each ESXi node that is part of a vsan cluster. LSOM (Local Log Structured Object Management) works at the physical disk level, both flash devices and magnetic disks. It handles the physical storage for vsan components on the local disks of the ESXi hosts. It also handles the read caching and write buffering for the components. The default settings for VSAN 6.x is as follows. /LSOM/diskIoTimeout (default value of 2000 milliseconds) /LSOM/diskIoRetryFactor (default value of 3) vsan will offline a disk for one of two reasons, either IO timeout or any non-transient SCSI error for a completed IO to the disk. The default values IO timeout involves exceeding an aggregate IO timeout of 60 seconds for any single IO, including the IO's initial submission and up to two additional IO retries. The current recommendation from VMware is to increase both the default IO Timeout and the retry factor to help against any transient IO errors when using controllers based on the LSI 3108 chipset. The new recommended value for /LSOM/diskIoTimeout is milliseconds and for /LSOM/diskIoRetryFactor is 4 Unfortunately we don t have these settings exposed on the vsphere Web Client Advanced host settings. This will be addressed in a future update. Modifying the default settings can be approached in two ways Manually setting the options per ESXi host. Orchestrating VSAN advanced settings using PowerCli. 3.2 Manually Setting the Options Per ESXi Host This can be achieved by connecting to each host via command line and issuing the following esxcfg-advcfg commands. esxcfg-advcfg -s /LSOM/diskIoTimeout esxcfg-advcfg -s 4 /LSOM/diskIoRetryFactor To verify that the updated values were modified, issue. esxcfg-advcfg -g /LSOM/diskIoTimeout esxcfg-advcfg -g /LSOM/diskIoRetryFactor 9

10 These values are effective immediately and are persisted across reboots. The drawback of this approach is that an Administrator will have to login to each host to apply the individual settings. This can be repetitive and thus error prone if performed manually. 3.3 Orchestrating Applying VSAN Advanced Settings PowerCli can help automate the task to ensure all hosts have uniform settings. Here is a sample of how you can possibly implement applying the new settings at a VSAN Cluster level, using PowerCli this is one approach buy the following PowerCli code sample below. This will apply the LSOM Settings on all VSAN enabled hosts in a given VSAN Cluster. for each ($VMHost in Get-VMHost ) { Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $vmhost -Name LSOM.diskIoTimeout Set- AdvancedSetting -Value "100000" Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $vmhost -Name LSOM.diskIoRetryFactor Set- AdvancedSetting -Value "4" } To verify issue foreach ($VMHost in Get-VMHost ) { Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $VMHost -Name LSOM.diskIoTimeout Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $VMHost -Name LSOM.diskIoRetryFactor } 10

11 A more complete example of using this PowerCli method has been written by Jase McCarty. It is available here VMware STRONGLY recommends before initiating firmware or new ESXi driver installs, that these settings should be applied beforehand. The new settings may help in reducing risk of triggering any controller related issues during any potential resync activity. 11

12 4. Staging Controller Firmware The approach is that the Firmware will be Staged and Installed, but not applied. 12

13 4.1 Staging Controller Firmware Using Dell idrac Since we are focused both on the firmware and ESXi software layer The approach we are taking is the Firmware will be Staged and Installed, but not applied. This will minimise host restarts and scheduled maintenance windows. Dell offer multiple methods to update device firmware using various tools Today will will discuss two possible approaches Manually Updating H730 Firmware using a idrac interface Orchestrating Updating H730 Firmware using Dell Open Manage Essentials 4.2 Updating Firmware Using a idrac This is a relatively straight forward procedure using idrac accessed from a web browser. Overview Login to the Dell idrac interface of your VSAN enabled host, in this case using Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller Version (Build 08) 13

14 Navigate to Quick Launch Tasks, Select Update and Rollback. From the Firmware Update Screen, select File Location as Local and Browse to the firmware package that was downloaded previously i.e. SAS-RAID_Firmware_VH28K_WN64_ _A06. This file is available on the Dell support website at us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails? driverid=vh28k&fileid= &oscode=w12r2&productcode=poweredger630&languagecode=en&categoryid=sf 14

15 Select Upload. Once the firmware has been staged to the server, we have options to apply the update. This can be done immediately or at next reboot. In this case we are selecting Install Next Reboot This will allow Administrators to select a maintenance window of their choosing. This also allows VMware Admins to also stage the ESXi Driver updates to minimize scheduled maintenance windows by reducing the number of required reboots. Once Install Next Reboot has been selected, a scheduled job gets added to idrac and the firmware will be applied on next reboot There is a default task timeout of 5 minutes to apply the new firmware package. 15

16 See below example of the firmware getting applied on reboot. Orchestrating Updating H730 Firmware Using Dell Open Manage Essentials While idrac is useful for smaller deployments, for applying firmware updates at scale, Dell Open Manage Essentials could be used for larger deployments. Overview For the purposes of this document we will explore Dell Open Manage Essentials Version Dell Open Manager Essentials, among other things allows admins to automate server life cycle management such as agentless upgrades on Dell servers via out of band interface of idrac. While this document is not a user guide on how to install and configure Dell Open Manage Essentials, it s worthwhile giving a generic overview of the steps involved. From the Dell Open Manger Essentials interface we have already discovered and inventoried the Dell PowerEdge servers. Discovery was performed by selecting idrac (server out of band) discovery option as we are primarily interested in applying firmware updates via idrac as it did not have a host OS dependency. 16

17 As part of deploying the Dell Open Manage package, we also installed the optional component, Dell Repository Manager (DRM). This can be used to create custom software collections known as bundles and repositories of Dell Update Packages (DUPs). This allowed us to create a repository which included a specific idrac bundle that contained the H730 component firmware update Once the repository was configured, we then created a custom catalogue / repository which can be used by Dell Open Manager Essentials as a catalogue source. After selecting the H730 custom catalogue, our already inventoried and discovered Dell PowerEdge system was displayed as Non-compliant System, as it was running an older version of the H730 Firmware. Once the target systems have been selected we have the option to run immediately or schedule for a later time. 17

18 In this particular example, we selected, Run Now, but ensured NOT to select reboot the target server. See screenshot below. Once the update task completed, it may have an execution state of Warning, meaning the update will take place once the target server is rebooted. Obviously this is an example of one system, for a VSAN cluster, it would be wise to create a group of hosts grouped per VSAN enabled cluster and stage the update to all systems in that cluster. 18

19 As mentioned earlier VMware Admins now have a chance to stage the ESXi drivers via vsphere Update Manager. This will minimise on reboots as both driver and firmware will be simultaneously remediated. We will cover methods to update vsphere hosts in Part V using esxcli and vsphere Update Manager. 19

20 5. Download and Stage There are two methods to stage ESXi device drivers to vsphere hosts. 20

21 5.1 Download and Stage LSI-MR3 Device Drivers Download and Stage LSI-MR3 Device Drivers on Esxi Hosts As mentioned already there are two methods to stage ESXi device drivers to vsphere hosts. Using vsphere command line. Using vsphere Update Manager. Manually Updating Driver to Esxi Driver LSI-MR oem Using Cli There are two approaches, esxcli or PowerCli with Get-ESXCLI V2 Procedure ESXCLI The offline bundle should be extracted from the package downloaded from my.vmware.com i.e. VMware ESXi 6.0 lsi-mr OEM SAS Driver for DELL PERC9 Based SAS Adapters. Using a secure copy client such as scp or winscp, copy the extracted offline bundle (VMW-ESX lsi_mr _MR-offline_bundle zip) to your ESXi server in a suitable location e.g. /var/tmp/ Using esxcli issue the following command, where /var/tmp/ is the absolute path to the driver location. esxcli software vib install --depot=/var/tmp/vmw-esx lsi_mr _mr-offline_bundle zip Note: If the host has access to a local or shared VMFS Datastore this can also be used if available. Another alternative is to use a webserver to host the extracted driver vib from the offline bundle. An administrator can then simply point directly at the URL with the viburl switch for example: esxcli software vib install viburl = lsi_mr _mr /lsimr oem x86_64.vib As a result now the driver has been downloaded and installed but not yet applied. Procedure PowerCli Scripting driver updates can also be achieved using PowerCli (6.3 R1) with the commandlet Get-ESXCLI with V2 option. This is a simple example of how to use get-esxcli V2 $esxcliv2 = Get-EsxCli -VMHost yourhost -V2 $esxcliv2.software.vib.install.createargs() $arguments = $esxcliv2.software.vib.install.createargs() 21

22 $arguments.viburl = "your url" $esxcliv2.software.vib.install.invoke($arguments) 5.2 vsphere Update Manager With Update manager we are simply going to upload the async driver to the Patch Repository on Update Manager and create a host Extension baseline and remediate against the vsan Cluster. The workflow to update async drivers via vsphere Update Manager follow the general outline below. Driver Upload Procedure Extract the offline bundle from contents of the package downloaded from my.vmware.com i.e. VMware ESXi 6.0 lsi-mr OEM SAS Driver for DELL PERC9 Based SAS Adapters. From the vsphere Web Client, go to Home -> Update Manager > Manage > Patch Repository, select Import Packages Browse to the location of the the offline bundle zip and select Upload File Click Next when Upload has completed 22

23 Select Finish to complete the import. Host Extension Baseline Creation Procedure From the vsphere Web Client, go to Home -> Update Manager > Manage > Host Baselines, Select Create New Baseline (green plus icon). Enter a descriptive name name and ensure to select Host Extension as the baseline type. Select the host extension with Patch ID VMW-ESX lsi_mr _MR. Click Next and Finish. 23

24 Attaching a Host Extension Baseline Procedure To remediate a VSAN host or a Cluster of VSAN hosts, we first must attach a Host Extension Baseline. From the vsphere Web Client, Select Home > Hosts and Clusters > VSAN Cluster > Manage > Update Manager, then select Attach Baseline. We now can see that our Cluster of VSAN hosts are Non-Compliant with the attached baseline. Stage Patches Procedure This is simply another way of saying we are downloading the driver to the selected VSAN Cluster. From the vsphere Web Client, Select Home > Hosts and Clusters > VSAN Cluster -> Manage,> Update Manager, then select Stage Patches. Select the applicable Base line with the lsi-mr3 Host Extension. Select the eligible hosts for the selected base line. 24

25 Verify your Patch and complete the wizard. This action will result in the lsi-mr3 driver being downloaded (but not installed ) to the non-compliant hosts. Ensure that the patches are successfully staged by reviewing the recent tasks and events on vcenter. 25

26 6. vsan Cluster Remediation This section talks about the VSAN remediation modes. 26

27 6.1 Maintenance Mode in a vsan Environment VSAN and Minimum Host Configurations 2-node: There are two physical hosts for data and a witness appliance hosted elsewhere. Data is placed on the physical hosts, and the witness appliance holds the witness components only, never any data. 3-node: There are three physical hosts, and the data and witness components are distributed across all hosts. This configuration can support a number of failures to tolerate = 1 with RAID-1 configurations. 4-nodes: There are four physical hosts, and the data and witness components are distributed across all hosts. This configuration can support a number of failures to tolerate (FTT) = 1 with RAID-1 and RAID-5 configurations. This configuration also allows VSAN to self-heal in the event of a failures, when RAID-1 is used. That is if a host (or some other infrastructure) fails, and there are free resources available in the cluster, VSAN can automatically fix the issue. With RAID-1 and FTT=1, there are 3 components. These are all located on separate hosts. If one of the hosts fails, then the component on that host can be rebuilt, and the VM is once again fully protected against a failure. This is one of the reasons VMware recommends a 4-node cluster at minimum for FTT=1, RAID-1. For VSAN 6.2 We Offer Erasure Coding (Raid-5 / Raid-6) If RAID-5 configurations are chosen, you cannot have this self-healing behaviour with 4 nodes. Since a RAID-5 stripe is made up of 4 components, each component is placed on a different host. 27

28 If a storage policy has the Failure Tolerance Method rule of RAID-5/6 (Erasure Coding), then data is placed in a arrangement. This means that either 4 hosts or 4 fault domains are required for this rule to be satisfied. Any one of the 4 hosts can fail, and all of the data is still present and available, albeit no longer redundant due to the loss of one device. To have self-healing with RAID-5, you would need a minimum of 5 hosts in the cluster. For Raid-6, Failures to Tolerate = 2, you would need a minimum of 6 hosts for component placement, but you would require 7 hosts for self-healing. When using the storage policy rule of RAID-5/6 (Erasure Coding) and less than 6 hosts contributing storage are part of a vsan 6.2 cluster, only a single failure is supported. To be able to protect against dual failures, 6 or more hosts are required. 6.2 Maintenance Mode Options Those of you familiar with vsan will know there are three host maintenance mode options: Full Data Migration Evacuate all of the components to other hosts in the cluster. Ensure Accessibility Evacuate enough components to ensure that virtual machines can continue to run, albeit at risk. No Data Migration Don t evacuate any components from this host. 28

29 An administrator should use the maintenance mode option Ensure accessibility This maintenance mode is strictly intended to be used for software upgrades or node reboots. Since the release of vsan 6.1 default Maintenance mode behaviour can be controlled via advanced option VSAN.DefaultHostDecommissionMode, which defaults to the value ensureacessibility. VSAN Decommission Mode Description ensureaccessability Host will be placed into maintenance mode but will ensure all vsan objects remain accessible evacuatealldata noaction All VSAN object data is evacuated to another host No action will be taken regarding VSAN object data. Validating Default Maintenance Mode Behaviour vsphere Web Client From Host and Clusters, Select Host, Advanced Settings, filter for VSAN.DefaultHostDecommissionMode. Esxcli esxcli system settings advanced list -o /VSAN/DefaultHostDecommissionMode 29

30 PowerCli Get-VMHost Get-AdvancedSetting -Name VSAN.DefaultHostDecommissionMode vsan Maintenance Mode Procedures In this section we discuss how to put a host into maintenance mode, explicitly selecting Ensure accessibility. vsphere Web Client From the vsphere Web Client, Select Home > Hosts and Clusters > VSAN Enabled Cluster Right Click on a host and place it into maintenance mode, and ensure you select the option Ensure accessibility. Esxcli the esxcli command to put a host into maintenance mode is as follows. esxcli system maintenancemode set --enable=yes -- vsanmode= ensureobjectaccessibility PowerCli There is no direct PowerCli commandlet to perform this action. However the method is documented here vim.vsan.host.decommissionmode.objectaction.html Below is a one way of putting a host into maintenance mode via PowerCli and explicitly setting the vsan option ensure accessibility. $vmhost= Get-VMHost hostname $spec = new-object VMware.Vim.HostMaintenanceSpec $spec.vsanmode = new-object VMware.Vim.VsanHostDecommissionMode $spec.vsanmode.objectaction = ensureobjectaccessibility $vmhost.extensiondata.entermaintenancemode(0, $false, $spec) 30

31 6.3 vsan Cluster Remediation Finally we are in a position to apply the new driver and firmware to a VSAN Cluster and schedule maintenance mode and reboot of VSAN hosts. Manual Remediation This is simply a matter of placing each VSAN enabled host into maintenance mode and rebooting each node, as part of a rolling reboot method for each host in a VSAN Enabled Cluster. Once each node has been rebooted and verified, it should be taken out of maintenance mode and the next system should be remediated, this ensures that at all times we minimise operational risk to the VSAN Objects and the hosted Virtual Machines. Note: Migrating Virtual Machines via VMotion can be manually preformed or if DRS is enabled, this is automatic. Manually disabling HA admission control maybe required. Using Vsphere Update Manager vsphere Update Manager orchestrates this rolling reboot process for the administrator. From the vsphere Web Client, Select Home > Hosts and Clusters > VSAN Cluster -> Manage> Update Manager, then select Remediate. Select your baseline, in this case, lsi-mr3. 31

32 Select Target Hosts in the vsan Cluster, which should already have the new driver staged. Review the selected Host Extensions. Specify Name of task and schedule. For the purposes of this exercise we will Run this action now. 32

33 Click Next to Continue. Accept Host Remediation Defaults. In our case we have a fully automated DRS cluster. Click Next On the cluster Cluster Remediation options. Select the Option Disable Distributed High Availability admission control if it is enabled for any of the selected clusters. Do not select Enable parallel remediation for the hosts in the selected clusters. Since in this example we are using a 4 node VSAN Cluster with Failures To Tolerate = 1 (RAID-1) and the default maintenance mode is set to Ensure Accessibility. It is logical to perform maintenance on one host at a time to avoid excessive data evacuations. Admission Control is temporarily disabled as we can see in screenshot below and Enable parallel remediation for the hosts in the selected clusters has not been selected. 33

34 Click Next to Continue. Summary screen. Click Finished once satisfied with your selections. Monitoring Ongoing progress of the remediation task can be tracked from Monitor - Tasks on the vsphere Web Client. 34

35 Note: the vsan Health UI will fail on certain tests while hosts are being put into maintenance mode and rebooted. This is expected behaviour. 35

36 7. Driver and Firmware Verification Know more about the driver and firmware verification. 36

37 7.1 PERC H730 Firmware idrac Verification This can be verified simply from idrac. From idrac console, go to Server Properties System Inventory Firmware Inventory Locate PERC9 based controller, e.g. below shows an example of a PERC H730 Mini Device Dell Open Management Device Inventory Command Line Verification If the vsphere ESXi host has the PERCCLI Utility for VMware installed, an administrator can simply query from esxi shell with perccli. For more information on PercCLI tool see the following Dell Knowledge base Article ID SLN cd /opt/lsi/perccli/ [/opt/lsi/perccli]./perccli /c0 show 37

38 7.2 ESXi LSI-MR3 Driver Version Verification vsphere Web Client From Hosts and Clusters, Select VSAN Cluster Host Monitor Hardware Status. Select Software Components. Locate Software Module, lsi-mr3 and expand for details. 38

39 Esxcli esxcli software vib get --vibname=lsi-mr3 PowerCli $esxcliv2 = Get-EsxCli -VMHost esxi-c-scnd.rainpole.com -V2 $esxcliv2.software.vib.get.createargs() $arguments = $esxcliv2.software.vib.get.createargs() $arguments.vibname = "lsi-mr3" $esxcliv2.software.vib.get.invoke($arguments) 39

40 VSAN Health UI From Hosts and Clusters, Select VSAN Cluster Monitor vsan Health. Once test has completed, navigate to vsan HCL health test Controller Driver. Note: Updating vsan HCL file maybe required and is is covered in Appendix B later in this document. vsphere Update Manager Verifying compliance can be performed once remediation has completed successfully. Select Hosts and Clusters > vsan Enabled Cluster > Manage > Update Manager. Check host Compliant Tab against the driver baseline. 40

41 41

42 8. Summary This document will explain the process of updating VSAN certified drivers. 42

43 8.1 Summary This document will hopefully explain the process of updating VSAN certified drivers from both a Firmware and Device driver perspective while calling out operational guidance and approaches to applying such updates. References VMware Official Documentation VMware vsan 6.2 Release Notes vsan Administering VMware vsan com.vmware.vsphere.virtualsan.doc/guid-aef ed9-4e2b-ba12- A5CE0932B976.html vsan Health Check Documentation vcenter Server 6.0 Update 2 Release Notes release-notes.html VMware vsphere PowerCli 6.3 Release 1 Release Notes releasenotes.html VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 2 Release Notes vsphere Upgrade Guide GUID-18B7B4BB-C24A-49CD-AE B29F.html vsphere Installation and Setup Guide GUID-7C9A1E23-7FCD CB1-C932F2423C63.html VMware Compatibility Guide vsphere API and SDK Documentation E0BBED4C-8C5A-4C01-B21A-575F85E9A650.html 43

44 VMware Whitepapers vsan 6.2 Space Efficiency Technologies White Paper VMware KBs VMware KB: Best practices for vsan implementations using Dell PERC H730 or FD332- PERC storage controllers ( ) VMware KB: Certification of Dell PERC H730 and FD332-PERC Controllers with VSAN 6.x ( ) VMware KB: Deployment guidelines for running VMware vsan and VMware vsphere VMFS Datastores on a Dell H730 controller with the lsi_mr3 driver ( ) VMware KB: Downloading and installing async drivers in VMware ESXi 5.x and ESXi 6.0.x ( ) Dell Documentation Dell OpenManage Essentials Version User's Guide OpenManage-Essentials?guid=GUID- F21468FB-0F16-4ADB-8D29-41C5B1D32395&lang=en-us Dell PercCLI KB SLN Dell Knowledge base Article ID SLN Unofficial Blogs Putting a VSAN host into maintenance mode using PowerCLI PowerCLI 6.3 R1: Get-ESXCLI Why the V2? Override default VSAN Maintenance (decommission) Mode in VSAN

45 Considerations On vsan Maintenance Mode And Disk Operations GitHub code 45

46 9. Appendix A Here we are assuming that the scenario of directly upgrading to VSAN

47 9.1 Appendix A: Directly Upgrading to VSAN 6.2 In this scenario, we will assume that vcenter Server and vsphere Update Manager is at 6.0 U2. ESXi hosts are at ESXi 6.0 U1 or below In the procedure outlined below, ESXi servers are at 6.0 U1 and we will use Dell Version: Version 6.0U2, A01 Build# Dell Customized Image of VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 2 Similar to driver upgrade we will load Dell customized image to Update Manager, create a host Update baseline, scan and remediate. See below for visual representation of steps. 9.2 Image Upload From vsphere Client home, select Update Manager -> Manage -> ESXi Images. Select Import ESXi Image. From the proceeding wizard, navigate to the Dell customized is, select Import and click OK when image has been imported. 47

48 Once the image has been imported we can verify if image contains the latest certified lsi driver under Software Packages. 9.3 Create Host Upgrade Baseline From vsphere Client home, select Update Manager -> Manage -> Hosts Baseline. Select green plus button to Create new baseline. Give the host base line a descriptive name and select Host Upgrade. 48

49 Click Next Select Dell Customized Image. Click Finish to complete new host upgrade baseline. 9.4 Attach a Host Upgrade Baseline From Host and Clusters, Select VSAN Cluster -> Manage -> Update Manager Select Attach Baseline. Select the Upgrade Baseline created earlier. 49

50 Once Host Upgrade Baseline has been attached to cluster, select Scan for Updates. Specify Upgrades, click OK. We now should have all hosts in the VSAN Enabled Cluster with Compliance Status as Non-Compliant. 9.5 Remediate Unlike driver updates, host upgrades are not staged to ESXi hosts beforehand. From Host and Clusters, Select VSAN Cluster -> Manage -> Update Manager 50

51 Select Remediate. Select Upgrade Baseline, i.e. the ESXi 6.0 U2 Baseline. Click Next. Select target ESXi Hosts. Click Next Accept EULA and select Next. On the ESXi 6.0 Upgrade screen, Click Next. If upgrading from vsphere 5.x to ESXi 6.0 U2, vsan has very strict requirements on supported hardware. It is advised to not select ignore. 51

52 Click Next. From Task Schedule, create a descriptive task and for the purposes of this document select run this action now. Click Next Accept Host Remediation Defaults. In our case we have a fully automated DRS cluster. Click Next. On the cluster Cluster Remediation options. Select the Option Disable Distributed High Availability admission controller if it is enabled for any of the selected clusters Do not select Enable parallel remediation for the hosts in the selected clusters 52

53 Since in this example we are using a 4 node VSAN Cluster with Failures To Tolerate = 1 (RAID-1) and the default maintenance mode is set to Ensure Accessibility. It is logical to perform maintenance on one host at a time to avoid excessive data evacuations. HA Admission Control is temporarily disabled during this time. Click Next to Continue. Click Finish to schedule / kick off Upgrade. 53

54 9.6 Monitoring Ongoing progress of the remediation task can be tracked from Monitor > Tasks on the vsphere Web Client. Note the vsan Health UI is not available when vcenter Server is at 6.0 Update 2 and ESXi Hosts are at 6.0 U1 or below. Updating vsan HCL file maybe required and is is covered in Appendix B later in this document. 54

55 10. Appendix B This section will help you update vsan HCL file. 55

56 10.1 Appendix B: Updating vsan Online If Virtual Centre Server has access to the internet either directly or via proxy, to update vsan HCL file is as follows. From the vsphere Web Client, select Hosts and Cluster -> vsan Enabled Cluster > Manage -> Settings > vsan > Health and Performance. Navigate to HCL Database and select Get Latest version online. Offline If Virtual Centre Server does not have access to the internet, the procedure is as follows. From a workstation accessible to the internet, download the offline VSAN HCL file from Save the file where it is accessible to vsphere Web Client. vsan HCL DB file is in JSON file format. From the vsphere Web Client, select Hosts and Cluster -> vsan Enabled Cluster > Monitor > Health Navigate to the test vsan HCL DB up-to-date Select Upload from File.. Browse to your JSON file location and upload. Re-run Health tests via Retest button. 56